I Pledge Allegence to the Constitution of the United States of America

As we look to choose our next president, How about this time, we NOT pick the one we'd most like to go have a beer with and instead, actually think about what this country needs in a leader?

We could start with the candidate's stand on war, where there are clear differences...McCain is FOR war, Obama is against.

Or we could look at education where McCain says, "No Child Left Behind was a good beginning" and Obama says, "[Teachers] feel betrayed and frustrated by No Child Left Behind."

Maybe the environment is your first order of business, where John McCain has suddenly discovered climate change after years of overwhelming support for mining and drilling everything everywhere, so much so that McCain acheived a League of Conservation Voters score for 2007 of, ta-daaaaah...Zero! Obama's 86% lifetime score is rather good by comparison, so no real problem making the choice here. You hate life on this planet? McCain's your man.

Perhaps your big focus is Healthcare. Clear differences there, obviously. McCain is all about protecting big Insurance and Pharmaceuticals by offering a tax break to families that would cover about a third of insurance costs. This can be restated as simply "Screw everybody who makes less than $50,000 a year." Obama favors a form of single payer Universal Health care (although his plan is morphing toward mandated coverage, it's not there yet...we'll see)

All of those are important, but after the incredible abuses of the Bush Administration, I think there is one issue that stands above all others...The rule of law in a Constitutional Democracy. The Constitutional crimes of the Bush administration are just starting to foam over the top, with people like the former spokesman Scott McClellan breaking the news that it was the President who conspired to break the cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame for nothing more than political reasons. Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence for obstructing justice will stand as one of the most heinous Presidential crimes in history, when all is said and done.

This administration has found lackeys with law degrees to put out paper that covers for every Constitutional crime they feel like committing, and they essentially say the same thing..."The President is above the Law!"

If you believe that, you are in the wrong country.

Now we see John McCain supporting one of the worst of the Bush crimes against his own citizens. McCain agrees that if he becomes president, he too will invade our privacy and tap our phones any time he feels like it because we are at WAR! His support for perpetual war gives the President powers he would not ordinarily have. Particularly so, with an administration who thinks the Constitution of the United States of America is "Just a piece of Paper."

In order to reinstate the Constitution we must elcet Barack Obama and end this stupid war, which isn't really a war according to the Constitution. The insanity of the neo-Conservatives is readily apparent. It's time to throw them out. We can decide what to do with them later.

Peace,

Steve